Walk into Model Citizen in downtown Woodland Park and let the experience of a European coffee bar begin.  

A map on the wall pinpoints the countries where Enrique and Tabitha Camacho source their beans, which they roast in the shop.

“Of all those coffee regions, I think we cover 90%,” Enrique said.

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Hawaii, Rwanda, Sumatra, Burundi. Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Nicaragua and Yemen, the dots highlight the world’s coffee growers.  

“Yemen took about four months to find an importer because of the unrest in the region,” Tabitha said.

The couple founded the company in 2020 and a year later introduced their coffee at the farmers market in Woodland Park.

“We always knew we wanted to be a high-end specialty coffee provider,” Enrique said. “That was our goal, to provide our coffee in Colorado Springs and Woodland Park.”

The couple exceeded the goal and today ship Model Citizen coffee to establishments in 42 states, and recently added Buena Vista in Colorado.  

The shop in Woodland Park was not on their to-do list.

Initially, the couple intended to focus on the wholesale while looking for a location for a roastery. They found one in downtown Woodland Park.

“But to occupy the space we had to be a café,” Tabitha said. “That now allows us to roast for anyone who walks in. And we can connect with the citizens of Woodland Park.”

The Camachos have a theme that begins with coffee, the Model Citizen kind.

“We are educators, and the goal is to find the region in the world where you like your coffee,” Tabitha said. “We offer free tastings and currently have 37 different seed origins.”

In a time when a coffee shop is a place that has internet connection, the Camachos buck the system.

“We don’t offer Wifi. We want you to talk to us,” Tabitha said. “We spend a lot of time with our clients.”

Enrique agrees. “Having a coffee bar is a bonus, one that we didn’t appreciate until we started serving citizens of Woodland Park.”

While the hot coffee is high-end, so, too is the cold brew. For this brew, the Comachos use the Yama Tower system.

“It’s a method that starts with ice cold water which lowers the acidity,” Tabitha said.

While calories in coffee come with the sugars and flavored additions, at Model Citizen the only available options are honey, whole milk, cream or organic syrup.

“We are a European coffee shop,” Enrique said.

The coffee experience is enhanced with Tabitha’s pastries, coffee cake or a Danish butter cookie that comes with each cup.

Enrique offers classes in roasting, sensory evaluation and processing.

“We recently had a class with 14 cancer survivors who were there for each other,” he said.

In a shop where traffic whizzes by on U.S. Hwy 24, the Camachos turned to the Downtown Development Authority for help.  One of dozens of recipients of the DDA’s micro-grant program, the Camachos jazzed up the building’s façade to attract attention, with new signage and paint.

“The grant was beautiful,” Tabitha said. “Now people can see us and love the coffee cream color.”

Without the $5,000 micro-grant, the Camachos acknowledge they may have put off the improvements.

“People say we were always so hard to find,” Enrique said.

Model Citizen is in the heart of downtown Woodland Park at 214 W. Midland Ave., and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.